What is the difference between judicial precedent and case law

For example, a case in New York would not be decided using case law from California. Instead, New York courts will analyze the issue relying on binding precedent. If no previous decisions on the issue exist, New York courts might look at precedents from a different jurisdiction, that would be persuasive authority rather than binding authority. Other factors such as how old the decision is and the closeness to the facts will affect the authority of a specific case in common law.

Federalism also plays a major role in determining the authority of case law in a particular court. Precedent as a noun obsolete, with definite article :. Precedent as a verb transitive, legal :. The difference between Case law and Precedent When used as nouns , case law means law developed by judges through court decisions and opinions, as distinct from statute and other legislation, whereas precedent means an act in the past which may be used as an example to help decide the outcome of similar instances in the future.

Case law as a noun : Law developed by judges through court decisions and opinions, as distinct from statute and other legislation. It is not unusual for several courts to be deciding cases on the same subject at the same time, with no good way to coordinate their opinions. Frequently the courts will reach different conclusions about the law. The state court in San Francisco might ban the use of Zoneout in the workplace, but the court in Los Angeles might allow it.

Until the California Supreme Court resolves the issue, medical care providers in the two different regions are facing different laws. This type of split also happens between federal courts of appeal, sometimes with three or four parts of the country under different interpretations of a given federal law.

The alternative to the common law system is called a civil law system. In a civil law country, the legislatures pass very specific statutes, and these are applied by the courts. Each judge who decides a case looks to the statute, rather than the previous cases, for guidance. In theory, in ambiguous cases each judge is free to reinterpret the statute as necessary to fit the facts of the specific case.

Although this interpretation need not draw on previous decisions by other judges, civil law judges do try to ensure some consistency in the application of the law by taking into consideration previous court decisions.

Louisiana retains some of the civil law procedures that were in force before it joined the United States. Previous Next.